Blog Questionnaire: LIBE 477B 951 July 2, 2013
1.What policies govern your uses of ICT in your school setting?
I am currently in a 1 – to – 1 laptop school. This is a HUGE jump from having nothing for the last 8 years in hardship postings. My current school is obsessed with ICT! We are considered an Apple/Mac hardware school & Goggle software school. We have staff that go for Apple training and have been told to “use ICT” in class. There is also an “acceptable use policy” that the students and parents both sign; as part of the initial Student Contract, which is renewed yearly. There is also a clause in the school’s “anti-bullying policy” that also covers the use of ICT as the playground has now gone online as well! At the beginning of the year we go over these documents in homeroom as part of pastoral care. These documents with the actions – consequences are also in the students’ daily homework journals/dairies. In the English department, the current Head is a fan of tech (as is the Director); therefore all final assessments involve ICT somehow. In the Arts department we are using ICT more in the “Developmental Workbook” or our ongoing reflective writing process. ICT is also taught as a subject, and segways into Visual Arts.
2. What digital technological resources do you have available for teaching and learning in your school setting?
Every teaching staff member and student in Grade 5 and up has a MacBook Pro. It is a daily tool. There are firewalls for the Internet use and Facebook is blocked. Other than that, we have free reign! We are currently moving into the use full time use of PowerSchool for student data, report cards, and the daily grade book.
3. Please provide an example of an exemplary use of digital technologies for teaching and learning that you have observed or experienced personally.
I actually loathe using tech, as it never works when we need it to and then there are always issues with energy, Wi-Fi, cables, cords, connections, and compatibility issues. However that being said, I think that as an English department we are 95% paperless and that is quite cool! We still have a few paper novels and poetry compilations. In addition, for the IGCSEs and IB DP, the students are allowed to annotate in their novels. I have saved HOURS over typing, copying, pasting, printing, and photocopying classroom resources! I can make ONE copy and then either email it to my students, or post it on the department website, or both! I am still doing such paperwork for their “grade slips” for their assessments, but hopefully we will be using PowerSchool next year for record keeping! With the use of communal Google docs I can have a class brain storm on that and project it onto the LCD screen. Students can also write their drafts on Google docs and share it with me for editing, or to a peer for peer editing. This also helps me cut down on any potential plagiarism! When there are Internet issues we then switch to either word or pages and then copy/paste them into a Google docs once the Wi-Fi is restored. All final assessment for our units involve ICT somehow. I have used Voice thread, Prezi, goanimate.com, videos posted on YouTube, mine craft, Google earth (lit trips), newsletter templates, poster templates, and ppt/keynote. Personally, I love swapping eBooks and book talk videos/movie clips with my students. As a department we try to create a community of readers at the school, and it can be as paper (traditional books) or plastic (online or eReaders)! My Kindle is my favourite ICT tool, and goodreads.com is starting to grow on me!
4. Please provide an example of a problematic use of digital technologies for teaching and learning that you have observed or experienced personally.
The students have found new excuses for work not getting done. The dog doesn’t eat homework anymore. Instead there are: dead batteries, no internet at home, the hard drive crashed, it was deleted somehow, it didn’t save it, no cables, or no battery left after lunch. In class the students will find a way to goof off and go online whether by swapping screens, hiding icons, or what not. Some teachers are more offended by this than others. I allow students to either fail or have shorter due dates when they waste my class time. When I need to talk, the laptop lids need to go down. Sometimes I will sit at the back of the room to see the screens. It still feels strange; I prefer to walk around every so often to see what’s happening. I have no issues with students listening to music while working and most have a library of songs while others go on YouTube. I ask them not to as it slows down the Wi-Fi. Again some teachers are stricter than others with in class use and misuse of the laptops.
5. Please provide a brief history of how you learned to use digital technologies (personally and professionally).
I only remember playing “Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego” in primary school, and it wasn’t too often. In middle school I remember a computer lab with BIG beige computers and green words that we went to once. In high school I don’t even remember seeing a computer. There were none in the library. Three years after I graduated though, my sister said that she had a computer/typing class in the same high school. In university I did my BA on an electric typewriter! By 1997 when I went into Education, there were computer labs at school. Those were the floppy disk days. I had one computer class, which was a time slot in the lab and a checklist to do. I don’t recall using any of it in a class. I then started typing out my papers on the computers and it was a lesson by doing and asking the IT dude for help when stuck. Printing was a nightmare! I became proficient in Microsoft Office – Word then. I graduated and subbed for 4 years. Some schools had computer labs and I was still typing up resumes and cover letters on a laptop then. I had a term position one year and there was a computer lab with an ICT teacher. I kept the kids in the room and differentiated on paper for my Grade 4 students. The overhead was as tech as we had at that school. Then I moved overseas. I was in a bilingual Chinese school in southern China, I had an overhead projector, and that was it. I had a BIG beige computer at my desk in the office for making resources and typing up report cards. Then I moved to Ulaanbaatar in Outer Mongolia around 2003 and all my work had to be transferred onto USB as it was so dry that static charges would short out the computers and erase all hard drives and floppy disks, which were becoming obsolete by then. I could book the ONE computer lab a month at a time for the occasional History research – play session. All work was taken home to type up and return by either paper or USB. We had no internal email at the school then. After four years of falling behind on reading, due to NO English books outside of the school library, I bought a Kindle. I got an American friends’ address and my Canadian credit card to buy it. Then she shipped it to me from NYC! Sneaky teachers! That was my life for four years. Then I moved to Phnom Penh Cambodia. I still had a BIG beige computer, some rooms had an overhead LCD machine, I now had an internal school email system, we also used Moodle (which was a total nightmare), and Atlas Rubicon for unit planning (which I loved and still do!). I could also now book mini netbooks out from the library about 2 weeks at a time! This was heaven! The students could do research and writing in class now for both English assessments and their Drama reflections! I was extremely paper heavy at this time and I was still using Microsoft Office and the computer as a typing tool. Skype was coming into play as well at this time too. Two years later I moved to Mexico City. I was there for one semester. I learned how to use PowerSchool and I had an overhead LCD screen. Back to China I went and back to nothing but my own laptop in the office and a workbook in a bilingual school. Now I have moved to Singapore to a 1 – on – 1 laptop school, which is obsessed with ICT! I came into the school read the unit plans and had to figure it out as I went. At the beginning I asked the ICT teacher to come in and he was almost helpful. I found his personality clashed with my students and so I now have a student who knows the program best to help others instead. The students ask me questions about their “artistic freedom” and boundaries/criteria for the assessment as I am fussy and a tough marker. I have learnt so much and I continue to do so kicking, screaming, and questioning the whole way through! 😀 And yes this was as brief as I could get.
6. How would you rate your digital technological proficiency? 0 = low level of proficiency 10 = high level of proficiency? Why did you give yourself this rating?
I would give myself a 7. I have been able to adapt and do all that has been asked of me, from Voice threads to adding stuff (documents, pictures, videos, presentations, student work, and so on) onto the school website – department pages. I need to be shown step by step. I need to write down notes as I am a kinesthetic learner, and then I need time to muddle with it on my own and ask questions when needed. Iam capable but I do not love it.
7. What do you hope to accomplish in this course?
I hope to pass and gain my credit hours. 🙂 I hope to learn more about the ICT out there and how to use it, and apply it to either my current classroom or future library.
Wow. You should take a look at Petra’s postings about her school and district. The differences could not be more stark. Your school policies could be very helpful for those in the class who do not have well developed ICT policies in their schools. It would be very helpful to the class to have you share your school situation, perhaps in your 10 minutes of fame? Isn’t it interesting, that despite a tech-rich environment, an attitude of ‘loathing’ can develop because it doesn’t always work as expected. I have faced this problem too. The institutional uses of ICT in education are not the same as personal uses of ICT. Someone mentioned the ‘everyone at 45’ management technique of closing laptops halfway when a teacher needs students eyes on them. Managing learning with ICT does not change the issue of sustaining student attention on learning tasks. Once the actual provision of ICT resources is no longer an issue, we have a chance to grapple with the larger issues.